Verden i Bergen

Last Sunday Diana and me traveled to Bergen to help out at the Mosaic project called "Verden i Bergen". The "Verden i" projects happen all over Norway, they bring kids (aged 7-15) together from local communities. Half of the participants are Norwegian, the other half are kids from asylum seekers centers in Norway.

The project was a great success and throughout the workshop we were really happy to be part of such a great initiative. It was a lot of fun and next to this we also managed to learn about the participants' background and stories. On Sunday evening we met with the Divers-group and the other leaders and coordinator of the project in the CISV house in Bergen. We talked about our expectations and plans for the upcoming days. On Monday morning we drove out to Arna to prepare for the arrival of the participants. Once they arrived, we started out with name-games, icebreakers and other fun activities. The afternoon was dedicated to an activity called "Fantasy Island" - the participants were really creative and excited about this. On Tuesday we started out with a "Human-Bingo" where participants and leaders got to know each other through Bingo-categories. In the afternoon we watched the movie "Over the hedge" and talked about how diversity could be connected to or present in the movie. After the movie all the participants were invited to color their own "Verden i Bergen 2013" T-shirts. The Wednesday morning was filled with cooperation activities like "Crossing the river". I was very impressed by how driven and focused the kids were during this activity and how well they worked together. After an awesome lunch with self-made Tacos, we had a fun afternoon with a dance contest to the song "What does the fox say" and a great activity where everybody could write nice things on each other's back.

We ended the project with everybody stating what they liked best during the Verden i.

The leaders and our project coordinator went out for dinner and a reflection + evaluation of the program. Personally, I really enjoyed these days in Bergen and I think that this unique initiative in CISV Norway contributes a lot to the local community and is a great opportunity for kids from asylum seekers centers and local youth.